


tell me your secrets (i’ll tell you mine)

by signifier



Series: The Chronicles of Los Santos [11]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst, Fluffy Ending, M/M, alcohol involved, cos we all know i love fluff, shoutout to critical role for this idea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 12:24:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19019887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/signifier/pseuds/signifier
Summary: A question is asked and two cards are pulled from a deck. The lowest number answers. Often, alcohol is involved.orJeremy and Ryan learn a little more about each other.





	tell me your secrets (i’ll tell you mine)

**Author's Note:**

> i’m not really sure how i feel about this one so please let me know!

“What’s the best lie you’ve ever told?”

It’s a game they like to play when neither of them can sleep.

A question is asked and two cards are pulled from a deck. The lowest number answers. Often, alcohol is involved.

They each pull a card, Jeremy pulling it straight up to his face and reading the number as Ryan does the same, a small, amused smile playing on his lips as he reads his own fate. Jeremy cocks an eyebrow in question.

“You first.” Ryan answers, which Jeremy knows means he’s either got something really high or really low.

“7.”

“Shit. I got a fucking 2.” He laughs, throwing the card down onto the table as he grins, bringing his drink up for a sip.

Jeremy takes a drink of his own, reaching the stage of tipsy where he’s warm and amused but still has control of his brain.

Ryan’s silent for a while, lips pursed as he rethinks every lie he’s ever told. Jeremy thinks it’s a long list. He also thinks, as Ryan repeats ‘best lie I ever told’ in a dragged out tone, that Ryan’s knew the answer since the words first hit the air.

Jeremy’s just about to push when he speaks.

“I pretended I was in love for two years.”

It’s so, gentle, to what he’d been imagining that he almost laughs, but Ryan’s got a look on his face that suggests it’s not a very nice story. 

“What happened?”

“There was this girl. This was way back before I was approached by Geoff. I was struggling with money and the cafe I worked at wasn’t exactly making me rich. This girl was quite the opposite, you could practically smell the money rolling off her with her expensive phone and branded bag and designer clothes. This girl came in everyday and it was so obvious that she fancied me - I’m talking cocked head, twirling hair around your finger fancied me - so one day I put my number on her coffee cup, let her call me and invite me out and I feigned interest for two years. We moved in together, I let her buy me new clothes and whatever she wanted, really, if it meant I got to keep living this life. I played boyfriend, went on dates and kissed her cheek in the mornings. I told her I loved her for two years, and that, is the best lie I’ve ever told.”

Jeremy, who had been silent during all of this, his heart hammering, doesn’t know what to make of this. Because he’s spent mornings with Ryan and been kissed on the cheek and suddenly there is a doubt creeping in at the back of his mind. He isn’t quite sure what to say to any of this, doesn’t find this game fun anymore, so he settles on more questions.

“And she believed you?”

“I’m an awfully good liar.”

Jeremy thinks of all the times Ryan’s looked at him and smiled, a soft smile, sometimes so small that it’s like he’s passing on a secret. He thinks of the thrill it gives him, of the way his heart catches in his throat because that is The Vagabond smiling at him like that, a man who so many fear, and he’s smiling at _Jeremy_ , soft and a little drunk, like he’s found all the answers to the universe in the slight scruff that line’s Jeremy’s face.

He drops his gaze.

“What was her name?”

“I genuinely can’t remember,” Ryan laughs, short, with a hidden emotion, before continuing, “and isn’t that fucking awful? I lived with her for two years, saw her face everyday for two years and I can’t even tell you her name.”

Jeremy’s ready to ask something else, but Ryan continues, shifting to sit forward in his seat and lean closer to Jeremy, so close that he feels the scent of alcohol hit his face at the same time their knees brush together and Jeremy’s skin tingles at the feeling.

“I swore to myself that I would never do it again. I would never play someone like that, or even get close enough for those feelings to be real because after those two years I stole myself away and did nothing but hate myself for what I did to her.”

Again, Jeremy goes to speak but the whiskey has lit something up in Ryan that has the words just spilling from him. Ryan takes a hand off his glass and grips Jeremy’s tightly from where it rests on the table. Their knees knock again, and this time the contact stays. 

“And then I joined The Fakes and I met you. I remember thinking that maybe I could finally forgive myself, because you look at me like..”

Maybe it’s the alcohol, but Ryan’s eyes are incredibly blue as they dance across Jeremy’s face like they’re tracing every detail and his lips are plump, and a little chapped from where he bites at them so often. 

“Like I deserve every good thing. Which I-“

“You do.”

Jeremy finally interrupts, finally gets his brain to respond as he shuffles forward in his chair and presses his knee to the inside of Ryan’s and applies pressure, feels the way Ryan presses back against him. 

“You do deserve every good thing. We are all shitty people and we’ve all done shitty things and it makes no difference to me if those things involved murder or not.”

He gets a snort from that, a doubting smile replacing the self hate that had been so clear on his face a few moments before. 

“Best lie I’ve ever told? That I hadn’t just stolen a train ticket from a family. They had a baby and were very clearly trying to escape the same shitty town that I was and I looked straight into the eyes of a very distressed man and over the sound of his child’s cries I told him I hadn’t seen his ticket. It’s the best lie I’ve ever told because it got me here to you and I don’t care that it was selfish or that it was the wrong thing to do because I am not a good person. We can’t be, not living the lives that we do.”

Ryan doesn’t say anything, just leans the rest of the way across the table and kisses him deeply. When he pulls away he settles back into his chair, shoulders relaxed. 

“I love you - and know that when I say that, I have never been more truthful.”

His tone is serious, but that smile is there, secretive and intimate in the safety of their night together. 

Jeremy feels his cheeks heat up, returns the smile and takes his hand from Ryan’s to shuffle the deck again before spreading the cards across the table. 

“Ask your question.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Throw me a comment or come yell at me on Tumblr @sig-nifier <33


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